


For Harnum’s Sake, Perhaps (Jaquemart Discussion)

by gorgeousshutin



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Alan Harnum, Fandom History (just a bit), Fanfic Review, Jaquemart, Retro Utena Fandom, Retro Utena Fanfiction, Yasha and Sen, not really an MST, reaction to podcast, spoilers to Jaquemart, trivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 00:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16336565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgeousshutin/pseuds/gorgeousshutin
Summary: How a recent podcast on Alan Harnum’s classic fanfiction compels this old fan to do an effort post :) Includes mentions of early Utena fandom historical events and trivia. Come read if you’re interested in any of that ;-)





	For Harnum’s Sake, Perhaps (Jaquemart Discussion)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alanharnum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alanharnum/gifts).



Warning: possible confusion between Yasha and "Vanna" in parts due to both voices sounding similar on audio (to me they do).

 

I believe it’s all relative, and that when something is of superior quality to the rest of the batch, it is good. Such is my feeling on Alan Harnum’s Jaquemart, a multipart story released between circa 1999 and 2002 that was once commonly considered the be-all and end-all of Utena fanfiction.

Anyway, Jaquemart is a continuation story that takes place seven years after the show’s ending. It has adult Utena and Anthy gathering their allies, before the whole bunch of them head back to Ohtori to stop this mad plan of Akio. This story was so successful back in the day, it spawned numerous other fics running on a similar premise. I'll admit here how I wrote my main Utena story as late as 2012, and it still drew from some of what Jaquemart had established since that early on.

Like all fanfiction, Jaquemart is not perfect. Parts of the prose and dialogues are perhaps too stagy even for its source material (but who am I to talk? my own fic is far worse XD). It is also what we call a dead fic. Harnum himself sounded disappointed in this story somehow, and his perfectionism eventually drove him to discontinue it. But what there is of Jaquemart is of such high quality, it is almost unparalleled in the world of Utena fanficiton. For this reason I still revisit Jaquemart every now and then out of nostalgia.

It was driven by such nostalgia that I recently looked up Jaquemart online. I wanted to see whether there are still new recs for Harnum’s story even after all these years, when my search led me to the following:

“It's time for more fanfic talk with Yasha and Sen, this time about Alan Harnum's Jacquemart.”

“Ja*c*quemart”? But I thought Harnum wrote it as…nevermind. This is a fairly recent podcast on an elusive big name fan and his most famous work. “Revolutionary Girl Utena Fanfiction” is a series posted under “Imagine Me & Utena” on SoundCloud, with Pt. 2 devoted specifically to this story. Normally I won’t listen to podcasts but the topic drew me to it. And so, I gave it a try.

I kind of know who this Yasha is. No idea about Sen. Anyway the podcasters are Yasha and Vanna(Giovanna, I think?) and two men whose names I never caught. They are apparently old fans like myself, who were already there back when Alan Harnum was still updating Jaquemart.

Somehow, Yasha and Vanna remember the early fandom somewhat negatively, calling it a bad cultural environment where people were so narrow-minded, they got mad at the idea of Utena possibly going lesbian for Anthy. Yasha cites Jaquemart an example of this, which has me confused. Could it be that “Ja*c*quemart” really is a different fic from the one I read? Someone tries to correct her, saying that Harnum has included the lesbian angle. Yasha says something to the effect of how the lesbian angle is still made vague because the audience back then wouldn’t allow otherwise. Really? I recall Utena and Anthy touching and arguing like a married couple in the first chapter. The only thing missing is a sex scene, but Jaquemart is not a lemon (do people still use that term?).

Someone says something about fans back then “gliding over anything that didn’t fit in the anime box.” Hmm . . . is it so bad for fanfiction to be . . . what’s the word? Canon compliant? The anime from what I understand has Utena and others displaying various degrees of bisexuality. My first introduction to Utena were the fanfics on aestheticism.net. Back in like ‘98 Saionji X Touga was all the rage, with Utena X Anthy mentioned/alluded to. Even most of the “general” fics have at least some Utena X Anthy in it. In stark contrast with what was in actual society back then, the early fandom struck me as being pretty positive to gay and bi stuff. That or maybe because it’s all relative, like I’ve said.

Yasha and Sen then express collective confusion as to how Utena got reunited with Anthy. Why, I can clear that bit up for them.

"I don't know what happened to me. I just remember hearing the  
swords coming, and then there was..." Agony. Unbearable pain.  
"...darkness. I don't remember if I woke up in the hospital, or  
at another school, or maybe I was on a dark road in a dark  
forest, or in a rose-scented coffin... I don't know where I was  
or what I was or how long that went on. Maybe I was in Sapporo  
already, although I don't know why, or maybe Anthy and I went  
there... Anthy's the first thing I remember."

-Jaquemart 3

Harnum aimed for a surreal reunion, as reinforced in another revisiting of the same event.

"Who are you?"

Said the girl.  
  
In the hospital bed.  
Wandering in the dark forest.  
Wearing a long-skirted uniform of soft greys and browns.  
Lying in the coffin.  
  
Said the woman.  
  
Walking through the flames.  
Standing amongst the stones.  
Bearing a sword.  
  
"Himemiya Anthy."

She replied.  
She replied.  
She replied.  
She replied.  
  
"Himemiya Anthy."

She replied.  
She replied.  
She replied.  
  
"Do we know each other?"

Asked the girl.  
  
With the tube in her arm.  
Who wore a skirt of leaves and had mud in her hair.  
Demurely and shyly.  
In a dry whisper, stirring the roses upon which she lay.  
  
"I remember you again."

Said the woman.  
  
In white.  
In white.  
In white.  
  
"Remember me."

She.  
  
Pleaded.  
Begged.  
Commanded.  
Demanded.  
  
"Utena."

She said.  
  
With relief.  
With joy.  
With desire.  
  
-Jaquemart 12ii

Four parallel events are happening at the same time during their reunion, with all versions being true. Such metaphysics appear in tune with what’s in the show.  
  
The podcasters had me startled as they then say Harnum disregarded the final scene of the Student Council and their relations, the one that shows them all seemingly moving forward. No . . . . Harnum did not disregard the scene. He had Shiori taking up fencing long-term exactly because of that scene. Just because the characters are shown (seemingly) taking one step forward doesn’t mean they won’t ever take two steps back seven years into the future. People are organic and malleable. Many will flip-flop between doing good and evil as per the circumstances they get put through. Harnum’s take on what will happen to the main cast after the end is completely plausible, and does not contradict with that open-ended scene in the show. There are some (derisive?) statements about authors being “curative” and not “transformative” for not interpreting that scene a certain way. Like . . . I dunno. I respect other people’s right to interpret Utena their own way when they don’t blatantly contradict canon. Like I don’t buy the “magical forget” angle after Utena’s exit either, but I ain’t gonna complain upon seeing this in other people’s fanfics.

Yasha and Vanna complains about Harnum making Shiori the mean girl of the fic, like she thinks it’s far-fetched. Yes, Shiori, the girl who seduces whichever boy she thinks Juri might be interested in? Who did a kiss and tell of her conquest in front of her classmates just to hurt Juri (see ending of Episode 17)? Anyone who’ve read my fics will know I’m a huge Shiori fan, but let’s be real. According to these podcasters Harnum has not dived behind Shiori’s inner reasoning that make her mean. They accuse him of “only seeing things on the surface.” They speak on before fully-explaining what any of that means.

For someone with recent memory of Jaquemart, I can vouch for the fact that Harnum’s Shiori is not depicted as just some flat mean girl. He even added for her some backstory the canon did not give us, giving readers reasons to sympathize with this difficult character:

Somewhere inside (and Juri had realized this long ago), Shiori  
was still a shy, quiet, mousy nine year-old whom the others made  
fun of because her uniform was a little too loose (her mother had  
been able--barely--to send her to Ohtori, but had to cut corners  
where she could, and buying a uniform that Shiori could grow into  
was only one). Until one day (a month, maybe two months after  
Shiori had come to Ohtori--it was so long ago) another nine year-  
old (tall, quiet but not shy) had simply put a stop to it.

-Jaquemart 5i

I would also point out that having other characters constantly assuring Shiori how she is useful does not make Shiori a useless character like the podcasters suggest. Harnum did his thing to address Shiori’s inferiority complex. It works from what I’m reading. That bit Yasha or Vanna says about mean girls sticking together IRL instead of in-fighting? That’s exactly what happens to Nanami and Shiori as their characters grow through the chapters and their relationhip evolved beyond mutual pettiness. More on that later.

There’s more riffing by Yasha or Vanna about how nothing’s really happening for many chapters. That would depend on their definition of happenings. The plot is thick though some people may find it convoluted. They also think Utena helping Juri and others get their memories back is a waste of pages. Now that’s a matter of personal preference. I suppose they’re entitled to not like the methods Harnum came up with for Utena and Anthy to gather allies and defeat Akio. I recognize how Harnum draws things out sometimes instead of just speeding things along, but he was also trying to develop the characters. Shiori and Nanami would not have gone from foes to almost-friends without those many things they’ve been through together -- things that occupy some chapters, but I like reading character development so I’m okay with that.

They then bemoan there being romantic tension between Touga and Utena in the fic. Well, the anime shows them having that romantic tension. It’s not depicted as necessarily healthy, but it’s there. From what I’m seeing the tension lingers on even late as the scene in Episode 37 where Utena tells Touga she’s a fool for Anthy. What chemistry there would be between Utena and Touga seven years later is completely open to interpretation. They also attack the scene where Touga, after regaining his memories, tells Utena to sit back and let him deal with Akio. But that is a reference to what happens during their third duel in Episode 36. Yasha and Sen have the right to express their dislike of the idea that Utena would remain attracted to Touga after the show. Harnum also has the right to write what’s evident in the show into his own story. He even managed to address both characters having bisexual tendencies like it is hinted at in the show. Yasha and Sen seem displeased at Harnum for having Utena still harboring attraction towards Touga. Well, if Utena can go up the Arena at night with Touga aurora glazing in Episode 36--after she had gotten the blunt of his cruel manipulations in their first 2 duels, after she already sees herself as an item with Akio--anything is possible.

It’s Yasha again. She talks about having blocked the fic from her mind and so cannot remember its details. Huh? But she’s doing this podcast on . . . ? Turns out the real reason story details elude her is because she hasn’t ever finished reading Jaquemart, and has not reread it in years. There’s a guy who last read Jaquemart a year ago, and he’s apparently the person with the most recent read through . . . .

By now I was like STUNNED. They’re taping themselves analyzing 283K words of story in fine detail, and none of them even bothered to go over the material beforehand?! I’m sure there is some perfectly logical explanation for this, like maybe they’re running this science experiment on photographic memory, or something. I mean surely Yasha and Sen would worry about getting the facts wrong, won't they? This isn't some private chat between buddies. They are releasing the podcast to the public, where what they say about Harnum will affect his reputation as a writer.  To risk misrepresenting a writer and his works by not doing your homework?  Why I . . . I'll just listen to what else they've got to say before passing judgement.

Yasha picks a passage focusing on Utena and Touga to read. Riffs about the overwrought prose. Yes, it’s there sprinkled throughout the story. She is entitled to not like that style. She says Harnum tries to write Touga but doesn’t really get him...unlike her and her female friend.

“Like he(Touga) gets multilated in like almost every fic but in mine and Vanna’s, I swear to god!”

It’s . . . nice, I guess, to see people being so absolutely confident in their own very personal interpretation of Touga. For me I accept and respect most SKU character interpretations even in general fanfiction -- long as they don’t blatantly contradict canon material, that is. I mean if it’s a serious show discussion about the characters I’d be stricter. But it’s fanfic, where writers are allowed some room for headcanons. Oh right, Yasha and Sen talked about transformative fics being modern. So I’m guessing having more legroom for valid character interpretation – gay, bi and even straight ones – would be cool too, no?

Ah! I just remember how Yasha had once praised a snippet of the Touga X Saionji storyline -- the childhood section -- taken from my main fic,  Yeah, I posted that at a Touga thread years ago, and she responded positively. Am warmed by precious memories as I feel extra special at this very moment.

Yasha continues with criticizing how unbelievable Harnum’s Touga is to her. She could totally go line by line trying to show us just how problematic the representation is in this fic, but she won’t! She mentions how Touga, while trapped in the magical forget, has these disturbing drawings of a male Utena.  Their presence in the fic confuses her . . . okay.  Leave it to me to do the explaining.

Either Yasha no longer remembers Utena fandom circa 1998-1999, or she had yet to join the party back then . . . meaning this dinosaur here might actually has some seniority over even her. The way I remember it, the very early chapters of Jaquemart came out before the release of the Utena Movie. The BePapas were giving out these promotional sketches of Movie!Utena, capped short-haired and in that masculine uniform, and a lot of fans speculated on how Utena would get a sex-change in the movie *laughs*. And many were EXCITED to see this change happen too (so no, most in the old Utena fandom were not that narrow-minded). Harnum had planned for Jaquemart to address the multiple continuities (anime, manga, movie) in Utena. See the scene with Utena seeing “other worlds” at Ohtori’s Tower in Jaquemart 10 right before she get yanked back by “hunchback” (more on that below). That was likely his reason for having Touga dream about a male Utena and drawing sketches of that -- Harnum was attempting to reference the Movie before it even came out! 

Damn, I feel ancient for even knowing any of this.

One of the guys takes over, only to confuse Kozue with Mikage much to my bafflement. I then remember how none of them has read Jaquemart in ages, so maybe that’s why (photographic memory fail confirmed). Yasha said she did not get some threads in Jaquemart tied off cause she just doped out, or something. But I thought pot isn’t legal in Canada until . . . nevermind.

Okay, they now have problems with Harnum making Tokiko a powerful figure, saying it’s against canon or something to that effect. Since I remember that bit, I’ll do the explaining here, again. Harnum hinted at this in-fic backstory he added, where Tokiko swallowed up the power/soul-swords of the Boys of the Black Rose during the fire at Nemuro Hall.

Tokiko reversed the motion and swept her sword upwards,  
taking off another foot as Utena backpedalled.  
  
"This black sword burns with the power of a hundred murdered  
souls," Tokiko said, advancing smoothly as a sailing-ship on calm  
seas and taking off one more foot. The branch was rapidly  
becoming useless as anything more than kindling. "And you  
challenged it with a tree branch? Brave..."

-Jaquemart 8

"Why did she run into the flames?  
Didn't she know I'd follow? Did she think she could save them?  
And we were lost by that, both of us... they came for me as was  
just, but she stood in their way--"

-Jaquemart 13

Harnum might’ve elaborated further on the technicalities involved in absorbing dead people's powers had he actually gotten to finish Jaquemart. But there are already all these hints in the finished portion. It really isn’t that hard to make the connection if you know your material.

By now Yasha and Sen are getting to Tsuwabuki. I am amazed they actually seem to remember his role okay. Discussion shift to the OCs around him, and how useless they are. Well, major OCs can be annoying for people looking to read about the canon characters in their fics. Riffing on more OCs, they start complaining about Harnum’s inclusion of a “hunchback” character they say just comes out of nowhere. The fact that this alien figure appears to know Utena from the show is so off-putting to them, some of them had to skim or just drop the rest of the story.

Well, let’s look at the passage concerning that hunchback “OC”:

A giant, broken apart like a shattered sculpture,  
reassembled by an amateurish artisan. Towering, hunchbacked,  
disproportionate, inhuman, bandy-legged, hideous of face, dark of  
skin, deformed, with a few loose strands of white hair clinging  
to a scalp as ugly with suppurations and carbuncles as the face.  
Her eyes fastened upon the hands; the huge, powerful, callused  
hands, which could have palmed her head like that of a kitten,  
crushed her skull with ease. The inhabitant of the bell-tower  
wore garb of a dark and charnel grey, and rusting chains were  
wrapped in circles around his wrists, ankles, throat and waist.  
The centre of the belt of chains bore a malformed, swamp-coloured  
stone, cracked and misshapen and as big as a man's clenched fist.

\- Jaquemart 10

Giant. Shattered sculpture. Dark skin. White hair. Rings a bell?

If not, it’s time to rewatch Episode 38, and reacquaint yourself with that iconic scene near the end. You know, the one where the GIANT DIOS on the egg shatters as Utena proclaims she is going to become a prince? Yes, the “hunchback” is Dios (or a version of him) after the Final Duel.

More is said, but it gets harder to focus on the content due to the increased frequency of snorting and laughing. The topics are also jumping back and forth quite a bit. Yasha/Vanna says something about Harnum not changing the tone when he changes POV. Interesting. Harnum writes in third person so the narration is not going to vary that much from one character POV to the other. The dialogues are stagy in parts, but voices between lead characters are reasonably distinct. One would never confuse Utena’s dialogue with, say, Anthy’s or Juri’s. Frankly I’ve not noticed significantly superior POV tone distinctions in other Utena fanfics, or any fanfiction for that matter. It’s all relative. They then admit that Harnum’s Nanami is well-written. Says Harnum cares about her character. Yes! Finally something I can agree with.

Topic jumps to Harnum's depiction of the Saionji and Wakaba marriage being problematic. They accuse Harnum of making it seem like a pill is all it takes to turn an abuser into a nice guy. Now I don’t like the Saionji X Wabaka thing myself. One guy says Saionji brings out the worst in Wakaba and I agree like totally.

However, Harnum himself does NOT depict the Saionji X Wabaka relationship as positive. That’s the point: he’s showing us how disastrous it would be should these two settle into a relationship out of not!love. Harnum mentions specifically the uselessness of medication in treating Saionji’s violent streak. Below is a scene of Saionji after having already taken his morning pill:

"Ohtori Akio?" She shuddered, and knew that the next time  
she closed her eyes, she would see that darkly handsome face  
before her. "I went for a car ride with him once."

Kyouichi suddenly wrenched his hand from hers and shot up  
from his chair, looming over her where she lay in bed. "What?"  
he hissed. "You did... when? Did he touch you?"

"Kyouichi--"  
  
He seized her shoulders hard enough to make her cry out, but  
she swallowed the sound before it could break free. His eyes  
were wild, frightening. "Did he touch you? Yes or no?"

"No," she whispered. "No; we just went for a drive by the  
ocean. It was nice. He didn't touch me. Not even a little  
kiss." She'd been rather disappointed by that at the time. Not  
now.

\- Jaquemart 4

Poor Wakaba.

In fact, he shows their entire marriage as a mistake from the very beginning.

They (Saionji & Anthy) lay down together on the green grass. Lips on lips.  
Her hands caressed his strong young chest. His palm on a  
breast, the fingers moulding, shaping, a gentle sculptor's  
touch. Dew against her bare back. He was above her, she was  
beneath him; the sky and the sea, and no land, no land in any  
place at all.

"I love you, Anthy," he said, hating himself for it, voice  
raw and inflamed. "Oh, I'm so sorry, but I do."

\- Jaquemart 12ii

"I can't find my button. I can't find my damn button."  
  
"Don't worry about it," she said softly, rising.  
  
"Don't worry about it!" He turned on her, still on his  
knees, and a manic glint was in his eyes. "'What happened to  
your button, honey? Mom bought you that shirt last year on your  
birthday, right? I can sew a new one on for you.'" He slammed  
his fist against the earth. "That's what she'll say. But she'll  
_know_. I'll see it in her eyes. Whenever I look at her face.  
But she won't say anything. I--"

"Nothing happened," she said stiffly. "If anything had  
happened, it would have been my fault. I started it."

"And I let you," he snapped. The anger drained away from  
his face, and a kind of weary self-disgust rose in its place.  
"I... I can't deny how I feel. About you. Still. But...  
Wakaba..."

"Do you think that's it only allowable to love one person at  
once?" she murmured. "Perhaps for some, that's possible."

He gave up looking for his button and, standing up, fixed  
his shirt. The vanished button was the first one down from the  
collar. Not immediately noticeable. She wondered what had  
happened to his sweater. To the mirror of gold. To the car,  
white like pearl.

"You don't understand," he said softly. "Wakaba... I love  
her. Because she's so good and so kind and so loving, and she  
deserves my love so much. She reached out to me and found a part  
of me that I didn't know was still alive. But... you. I look at  
you and it's like I'm on fire. I _burn_ for you."

\- Jaquemart 12ii

Ouch.

So basically Saionji has married Wakaba because he thinks she’s a nice person, but not because he loves her. Totally wrong reason to tie the knot. Harnum showed us that the marriage has a weak foundation to begin with. He did not depict the couple as being good for each other, like Yasha and Sen seem to suggest. These are deluded, suffering characters, and Harnum showed (without telling) that delusion.

More from Yasha and Sen. “He’s very impressed with his own ideas.” (as I would be if I can come up with all that) “It’s not really a bad fic.” (obviously/long fics are not easy to write/ it’s all RELATIVE you guys) “There is a lot that’s entirely down to the environment.” (they respected both canon and creativity back then, yes) “A bit of a desire to see things more simply than they really are.” (a bit/not too much as fanfiction goes) “Immaturity as a writer.” (. . . .) Their tone suggests how there are far superior Utena fanfiction out there. I wish they would do a podcast listing these better-than-Jaquemart stories I never knew existed, as I’m starved for good recs. But no.  They’re doing Archimage next, and from what I’m hearing they sound even less impressed with that fic.  Not gonna go there.

And that’s about it. They said a lot more but most I either didn't get, or that they're jokes/in-jokes.  Yasha and Sen do get certain things right about Jaquemart, such as problems with prose and story execution. Some of their personal options will matter to people who share them, so those also have value in a review. But not rereading beforehand means they got a lot of story details wrong in the podcast, resulting in misrepresentation of both story and writer. I’m not going to harp on Yasha and Co too much, cause I know I’m probably making some mistakes here and there even coming in prepared.  Jaquemart is really such a long and complicated story to discuss with competence. It takes such time-consuming research just to get the basics right . . . not something I’d tackle without significant incentive. So yes, my thanks goes to Yasha and Sen for triggering me to make an effort to do something I enjoy: looking back on fandom history, and writing about Harnum and Jaquemart. Hopefully the representation of Jaquemart is fair and correct here, and that I won’t be missing truth and forever misleading newer fans not yet familiar with the story. And Harnum! Thank you for ficcing and inspiring so many back in the day! It's all relative.  Then and now, few if any compares to your famous, fabulous Utena novel ;-)

Before I forget:  the LINKS!

 

Jaquemart by Alan Harnum: <https://archiveofourown.org/series/904311>

Revolutionary Girl Utena Fanfic - Pt. 2 by Imagine Me & Utena: <https://soundcloud.com/imaginemeandutena/revolutionary-girl-utena-fanfic-pt-2>

 


End file.
